Knots
by Oddly Inspired
Summary: AU. SoraKairi. It fit so perfectly that she had to wonder how she didn't guess it before.
1. Knots

Somehow, this is my first fic for Kingdom Hearts... weird.  
It's a tad on the long and strange side, but I like it.  
If any of it doesn't make sense, just ask. I love talking :)

Disclaimer: I don't own Kingdom Hearts. I don't own anything. I really don't even own my soul... I signed that over to the College Board when I was a sophomore in high school.

**Knots. **

* * *

"Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, no, don't worry… Here, just move a little to the left…"

"Ah, no, it just got more tangled… maybe if I move back and you go a little forward and to the right?"

…

"No, that isn't working either."

"I suppose we'll just have to cut them off."

The young man tugged hard on the strings, and the colorful cloth parachuted to the ground. He ran to where they fell, pulling out a pocketknife and kneeling on the ground.

"What a shame. I was having such a good time. And it's such a lovely day for it, too."

He looked up at his new acquaintance, smiling softly. "Yeah. Oh, well. We can always just buy some new string. It's not expensive or anything."

"That's true," she agreed, kneeling next to him on the warm grass, the sunshine gleaming off her crimson hair.

He stretched out next to her, and handed her the now untangled kite.

"Thank you."

He didn't say anything, just widened his smile to a grin. "Would you like to get some lunch with me?" He gestured across the street to a café, the green and yellow table umbrellas beckoned to them cheerfully, brightly. She nodded, and he stood, offering his hand.

"So, uh…" he began as they sat at a little round table.

"Kairi. I'm sorry, I never introduced myself."

"Well, to be fair, neither did I."

She waited, tucking her hair behind one ear. She smoothed out the lap of her sundress, twirled one of her dainty pearl studs, and interlocked her fingers. She took off her sunglasses, wiping the somewhat dusty lenses on the hem of her dress before putting them on top of her head.

He still hadn't spoken.

She sighed a little, and resorted to flat-out staring. "Well?"

"Hm?"

"Don't you have a name?"

"Well, yeah. Sure I do."

She sighed again, giving up. "The weather sure is lovely today, isn't it? It's beautiful."

"Is it?" He asked, as if he'd never heard of such a thing before.

"Well, yeah. That's why you came out in the park today, right? To enjoy the weather?"

He paused to consider that. It was possible, certainly, that that was the reason. Really, he'd just come across his old kite while cleaning out his closet and thought it might be fun to try it out again. "Yeah, I guess that was the reason. It is nice out today."

The time passed quickly in its awkwardness, the two young people chatting politely through lunch. When she finished, Kairi offered to pay her portion, and was flatly denied. Not really willing to stay any longer, she thanked her companion and made her way back across the park. As she neared her car, he ran up from behind her, stopping about a foot away, hands on his knees, catching his breath.

"Kairi. Hi. Um. I'm sorry. I was uh… just…"

"Yes?"

"Ah, never mind. Here you are," he said, opening her car door for her. "Nice car," he said, admiring the shiny crimson convertible.

She got in, thanking him for the compliment, for opening the door, and again for lunch. He just nodded and shut her door, then stood with his hands clasped behind his head and one leg crossed over the other as he watched her drive away.

---

The next weekend found her back in the park, kite newly repaired. A smile playing on her delicate features, she watched as the wind lifted the colorful cloth higher and higher. She closed her eyes in satisfaction, and another gust of wind, this one stronger than the last, blew her kite into a tree. It broke free, only to fall towards the ground.

Frowning now, she made her way to the imminent crash site.

"Ow!"

"Oh, gosh, I'm so sorry!"

"Oh, no. Don't worry… I'm fine. Didn't hurt, really, just startled me." He pulled the cloth off his head, fighting to untangle himself.

"Well, anyway, I _am_ sorry," she said and finally got a good look of her wayward kite's victim. "Oh, it's you! Well, hello again…"

"Oh, hi!" He freed himself completely of the kite. "Kairi, right?" She nodded. "This is a little odd. Who would ever think we would meet again, especially in such similar circumstances?" She shrugged. He carried on, unfazed by her lack of response. "Well, it's nice to meet you again. Would you care for lunch again, maybe? Or have you already eaten?"

"So... how has your week been?" He once again began the conversation.

"Ah… pretty slow. What about yours, Kairi?"

"The same. My entire life is pretty slow, really."

They were sitting at the same sidewalk café, at the same little round table, under the same cheerful green and yellow umbrella.

"What do you do?"

"I'm just a secretary for the mayor… I used to live with him, when I was a child. He's a very nice man."

Her companion only nodded in agreement. "He's done well in office, I guess. I really don't pay too much attention," he confessed.

"Neither do I. I just take his messages, and only twice a week… for only four hours each day."

"So you work part time, then?"

"No… I'm not technically on the payroll. It's just his way of giving me spending money, I think… He still looks after me as if I were a child. And I have to earn it somehow, he says."

"That's very nice of him."

It was quiet as they ate, and she realized that she still didn't know his name. She looked up to ask; only to find him staring off to the side, watching the crowd go by. She couldn't bring herself to interrupt his musings, and instead took to studying him.

His posture was one of confidence. His brow was furrowed slightly, brown hair falling into wide, deep cerulean eyes. She looked carefully at his eyes. He couldn't have been any older than she, but his eyes held so much life in them, so much wisdom, so much love, and so much pain. But there was something hopeful there, something that she could not quite grasp no matter how hard she tried to wrap her mind around it.

He looked back to her and smiled. "People are good, aren't they? They aren't born evil."

She didn't know what to say, so she said nothing.

---

Kairi sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time as her kite spiraled back to earth. So maybe today wasn't the best day for this. The forecast had warned of wind and rain and thunder, but (thankfully) no lightening, so she'd figured she was safe, at least until the rain set in. But the winds had come in earlier than she'd anticipated, and they made her new favorite activity near impossible.

She wrapped her string back around its spool, and folded her kite as best she could. Feeling a little bit like a hypocrite, she giggled as she watched somebody across the park struggle with theirs.

"Having some trouble?" she called.

"Oh, ah, just a little! I think I've got it now, thanks though."

She nodded and started to her car—only to realize, after being unable to locate said car, that she had walked. _Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ she chided herself.

"Excuse me," came a warm voice from her left. "Um… would you like a ride? I... I noticed your car wasn't here today."

She turned around to find those same cerulean eyes from the past two weekends. And the attractive owner of those eyes attached, of course. "Are you sure you don't mind?" she questioned, just as the first clap of thunder sounded.

"Sure. It's no problem at all, really."

The rain began to fall then, softly at first, then progressively harder as they jogged to his sleek black Jaguar. "Nice car," she imitated. "But it's a bit too showy."

"Actually, your Volvo was my second choice. I was going to get it in navy blue, but then I saw this, and figured I'd be flashy for a little while… so where to?"

"Arbor Hills… the mayor's residence, please."

"I thought you didn't live there anymore?"

"I don't, not really. But I'm supposed to go there for dinner anyway…I still have a lot of things there, too. And one of the maids can drive me home after."

They pulled up in front of the house ten minutes later. He got out in the rain to open her door, and she smiled at him in amazement. "Thank you." He grinned and nodded, shutting the door behind her. She ran up the path to the front steps, and he jogged around the back of the car. Looking back, she shouted over the rain. "Oh, please, stay for dinner. I'll get you some fresh clothes. You've just been too kind."

He looked up at her and smiled. "I would. But I've got plans."

_A girlfriend?_ She wondered. But she just smiled and nodded goodbye at him, waving as he drove away.

---

She got into the habit of walking to park almost everyday, whether she had her kite or just wanted to bask a little in the sunshine. She had no real reason, but rationalized her behavior by telling herself that the fresh air was good for her and that she spent too much of her life in artificial light. Of course, though she would never admit it, she wanted to see him again.

The next time they met, neither had a kite. It was the very end of summer, and the leaves were just turning. "It matches your hair!" He exclaimed that day, running up from behind.

"You haven't been around in a while, stranger." She commented, and he smiled unabashedly.

"Eh, business," he said easily. "Lunch?"

She nodded, and they walked to their old table at the café. She realized she still didn't know his name. But it seemed so strange to ask at this point, so she waited and hoped that he would mention it somehow. Or maybe that a friend of his would come up and maybe they would mention it. She didn't really care. She was getting a little desperate.

"Tell me about yourself."

"There's not much to tell. I'm pretty boring."

"I don't care."

"Well… what do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Anything. What do you do for a living? Do you have any family? Any pets? Notable friends? Girlfriends? Hobbies?"

"I dabble in stocks, have a mother and twin brother, no pets unless you count a goldfish, a best friend named Riku and two more named Tidus and Wakka who both play blitzball, no girlfriends, and I enjoy moonlit strolls on the beach and candlelight dinners."

She raised an eyebrow.

"All right. So maybe I lied a little about my hobbies."

He offered to drive her home again, and she accepted. She really was too tired to walk back to her apartment, even if it was only a short little mile. "Do you mind though, if we stop by my house for a minute? There's something I told a friend of mine—Tidus—that I would get to the mayor for him. Could I give it to you?"

She agreed.

He turned away from her urban neighborhood, towards the edge of town. They stopped a few minutes later in front of a large gate, but one five-digit password later, they were going up the gravel drive into the garage. She smiled at the quaint lattice-work adorning the sides and the opening, and marveled at the house whose steps the young man was running up.

"Home sweet home!" He said as he opened the door and invited her in. "Have a seat anywhere you'd like… I'll only be a minute."

She nodded and walked across the old wooden floors into what she assumed to be the living room. The house was large, with vaulted ceilings and a semi-open floor plan, but it was cozy. She could imagine him stretched across the overstuffed twill sofa, remote or book in hand. She laughed when she saw the fish tank with one very large goldfish in it. Standing back up, she poked around the bookshelves before noticing a collection of silver framed photos on the leather drum table in a corner.

There were all sorts of photos—some in black and white and some in color, some of friends, some of family, and some of him as a younger boy—and she looked carefully at each one, memorizing them, trying to put the few names she knew to the faces, making up stories about the subjects.

He bounded down the stairs.

"Here. Thanks. I'll take you home now."

She nodded, tucking the envelope into her purse. "Your house is lovely," she complimented as they got into a different car, this one a pewter colored Lexus sedan. Unfailingly polite, he opened her door.

"Thanks. It was kind of a gift from a friend of mine for a favor I did him once."

"That must have been some favor."

---

"Sora!"

"Heeyy! It's been awhile!"

"Yeah. You know how it gets. Thanks for calling me, man. I kept meaning to and just never got around to it."

Sora nodded and turned back to his food. The blonde sat across the table, and the waitress arrived promptly to take his order. "So. How's it going?"

Sora chewed thoughtfully. "Okay, I guess. Same as always."

"Me too. No big adventures lately?"

An enthusiastic shake of the head.

"Thankfully, huh?"

Sora swallowed. "Yeah. Thankfully. My house actually looks like someone might live there now."

The blonde laughed. "About that. Mind if I stay with you for a bit? I'm being booted out of my apartment, and Naminé has no room at that tiny loft of hers."

"Sure, Rox. I've got room."

"Thanks man."

They were quiet for a few moments, enjoying their food and each others company. Sora was the one to break it. "I met someone."

"Hey, good for you! What's she like?"

"She looks a lot like Naminé, only with red hair… it's shorter, too I think."

Roxas nodded, trying to imagine his very fair girlfriend with red hair. "Well… Do you like this girl?"

Sora thought for a moment, carefully choosing his words. "She's… something. Very nice, funny… really pretty…"

"Answer the question, Sora. I'm your brother—not only that, I'm your_twin_ brother. I can like, sense when you're avoiding it. Well, anyone could. You're not very good at dodging things."

He pouted for a moment before sighing resignedly. "Yeah… yeah, I do."

---

It was fully fall by the time she next saw him. She'd moved on from flying kites to running, and was currently doing laps around the park's trail. Looking down to watch her feet as she maneuvered around tree roots, she couldn't see what was in front of her.

_Smack!  
_

And she was on the ground.

"Oh, hey there! I'm sorry… I wasn't watching where I was going! Here."

And he offered her his hand.

And she got up, vaguely realizing that it was the first time they'd ever touched. "How long has it been now since we first met?"

Confused as to the sudden question, his brow knitted together. "I dunno. A few months?"

"Why do I still not know your name?"

---

"Wait, what? You never even told her your name? I get that you wanted to keep some mystery around you or whatever, but don't you think that's taking a bit too far?"

Sora grumbled around a french fry. "I dunno. I'd forgotten I never told her. I meant to, after a while. When it became clear she didn't know. But I forgot."

"Does she know anything?"

"She knows that I 'dabble in stocks, have a mother and twin brother, no pets unless you count a goldfish, a best friend named Riku and two more named Tidus and Wakka who both play blitzball, no girlfriends.'"

Riku smiled fondly at the younger man across the table, shaking his head. While he understood his friend's desire to keep certain things undisclosed, he couldn't help but think that maybe he was being a bit extreme. Or maybe not. Riku wasn't really sure how it worked when you assassinate crazy evil people bent on world domination for a living. "You know what I mean. But I'll take that as a no. Has she seen the house?" Sora nodded. "All right, does she know how you got that?"

"'It was kind of a gift from a friend of mine for a favor I did him once.'"

"You really haven't told her anything… who is she, again?"

"Kairi."

"I went to school with a girl named Kairi… red hair, you say? I wonder if it's the same girl… and that answers my question," he finished a few seconds later, noticing the subject's approach.

"Huh?"

"Boo!"

"Kairi. Nice to see you," Riku smirked.

"Riku! Oh! Hey! It's been too long!" She pranced around the table and encased Riku in a hug that had the brown headed boy pouting for a good five minutes. "And **Sora**. It's good to see you, too," she added, hugging him and carefully enunciating his name. She'd practiced saying it ever since she'd learned it. It fit so perfectly that she now felt a little stupid at times for not guessing it.

"Well," said Riku, stretching as he stood and tossed a few bills on the table. "I'll leave you crazy kids alone." He winked. "Don't get into too much trouble, now."

Kairi watched him go with a small smile. "Tell me more about you. Please? It seems like the more I know you, the less I understand. I mean…What kind of favor did you do to get a house like yours?"

"Oh, it wasn't anything much. I just saved the world."

She laughed, and he relished in it. "Oh, that's it, huh? Nothing big."

"I killed someone," he confessed suddenly, cringing as her eyes widened and she pulled back. "A lot of people. I was supposed to be a hero… I was just a kid…" She leaned back towards him, brow furrowing at his words. "He told me to do it and I did. I do. But these people… they aren't—well, weren't…" He trailed off, lowering his eyes to his hands fisted on the table. "I'm not… I'm not supposed to talk about it."

She left, and he sank his head into the pillow of his arms.

---

It was turning to winter now, the tropical air cooling to a lukewarm seventy degrees. In the park, the birch trees were fully bereft of their leaves, but the palms and oaks remained full as ever.

"Oops. I'm so sorry."

"No, no, it's fine… Kairi."

"Hi, Sora. I'm really sorry. I always mess you up somehow."

"I don't mind. After all, if you had never messed me up, we wouldn't have ever met. Anyway, they're tangled again."

She smiled at him warmly. She hadn't seen him since that day. She'd left him sitting alone that day, deep in thought. It all made perfect sense, really. No wonder he'd been so unwilling to talk about himself. No wonder he was desperate to believe that people were good. No wonder he was able to live so luxuriously. He was being paid guilt money. No wonder his eyes seemed so old.

She didn't try to deny it to herself, just tried not to think about it. She refused to picture him soiled with the blood of others. She knew he was good. He was like light itself—hopeful and full of life and loving. She'd thought so much about it, surprised, once again, that she hadn't guessed it herself.

"I suppose we'll just have to let them fall?"

He smiled at her and cut the strings, and the kites flew apart before they fell together back to earth.

* * *


	2. Life Sequence

I decided I like this too much to just leave it be. Tell me if I'm overdoing it.  
I'm making this into a series of connected but independent one-shots that eventually lead up to the events in the original.

And yes, Sora is a hitman...more of an assassin, I guess, since he works for a government?  
It was the closest real-life parallel I could think of to being Keyblade Master.

**Disclaimer**: I don't own anything... well, I do own the plot (or lack thereof).

* * *

He never took too long to finish a job. A single cut was more than sufficient, if it was well-placed. And if not, then he had no real qualms with messy hacking. More barbaric, sure, but just as effective. And it was in his job description to be efficient. If the target had protection, it was almost easier. He was fast enough to avoid most bodyguards and strong enough to just cut right to the heart of the matter, so to speak.

It bothered him, though. Sometimes. He was a kid. Why would it have to be him? The King was always nice to him and Queen Minnie was wonderful company. Riku and Roxas, the only others who knew about his new "occupation," never treated him any differently. So he didn't worry too much, but…

Why him?

Why should he have to save the world when he'd only been a part of it for fourteen years? The world had never done him any favors. It hadn't had time.

-

By the time he turned fifteen he could feel himself growing tired. The jobs were fewer and further between, but each new one took a greater toll. He found himself stopping to think sometimes.

He became more efficient, like if he could just get the job over with as quickly and cleanly as possible, it would be like it had never happened. He learned not to bother with bodyguards at all, learned to sneak around undetected. He gained some patience, and found out it was easier to wait, since an opening would always present itself soon enough.

He lived a normal life, mostly, since fewer jobs allowed him more time at home. He went to school, went on a few dates with a few different girls. All anyone knew—excepting Riku and Roxas, of course—was that he had a "very ill relative" who lived "far out of town."

His mother took Roxas out of school and sent him to that relative, who wasn't sick at all, whenever Sora was gone.

-

He could tell that other people began to sense him as someone dangerous. He was sixteen now, and already as world weary as a man in his sixties. His friends all became very cautious around him. Roxas didn't joke about it anymore. Riku watched with concern, but didn't know what to do. His mother tried her hardest to bring back her happy young son, but failed more often than not.

Tidus and Wakka could sense it too, and they knew nothing. He knew, when he realized their wariness around him, that he was burning out.

There were times, of course, when he laughed and smiled just like the way he used to, but those times grew more and more infrequent with every hit. King Mickey, hiding behind the thick walls of his castle—_just like a damn mouse_, he thought—assigned a few jobs to other people—to Riku and to Roxas—in place of him.

He hated the thought that they had to go through the same things he did, but what could he do? Because at the same time, he was a little glad he wasn't in it alone anymore.

-

At his seventeenth birthday celebration—hosted by Queen Minnie—he laughed and joked and played like always. _So innocent_, everyone said, _so good_, _so pure_. He laughed at them more than out of happiness, though they never knew it. _Pure_, huh?

He'd killed, at this point, upwards of thirty people. But he was _pure_, because he still had such a _bright light_, such _goodness_ about him. Never mind the gallons and gallons of red—enough to fill the new swimming pool Mickey was giving his family.

He never said being the King's hit man didn't have perks.

Roxas and Riku weren't going to work anymore, Mickey told him later that evening, privately, away from the guests, so no one could hear. It was all up to him now. And he wasn't sure whether to be happy for them, or resentful.

-

He went to college in the fall. He studied medicine. He figured it would be easy, since he knew more about Anatomy than just about anyone in the entire world. It wasn't. He dropped out, and switched to General Studies, just until he could figure out a more selective path. He decided that his short stint in medicine had been some kind of way of atonement.

He got a letter, after a while, from the King. It was the first one in several months, and he wasn't sure whether he was thrilled or desolate. As he felt the familiar rush of adrenaline, and then the dread of what was to come, he decided maybe it was a little bit of both.

This was a bigger job than any he'd ever had. He made sure to read only the target's birth name—reading the family name reminded him that there was, indeed, a family out there from whom he was stealing a brother or uncle or son or father or nephew. Xemnas.

"A former apprentice of an associate of mine," the letter read. "He must be stopped, along with all others who have joined him." There were twelve in all. He wasn't looking forward to it.

-

He didn't finish the job until he was almost nineteen. He'd only had to deal with a few of the targets, as his main target—Xemnas—had dealt with them long before. One even turned traitor, and joined Mickey at the castle. Axel quickly became Roxas' best friend. He was glad for that, since he didn't get to spend much time with his twin brother anymore.

Riku came around, sometimes. They went to the same school, since Riku had switched. Riku said it was because his school had a better Law program, but he didn't believe that for one second. He knew Queen Minnie had asked Riku to keep an eye out for him. He didn't mind, because it was nice to be with his best friend every once in awhile.

Mickey gave him a house after he finished The Job. It was a big yellow one, with white trim and lattice work. There were vines growing up the sides, and a picture window in the dining room. It had tall white columns that held up the gabled roof that made it look like it was really three stories, even if it was only two. For his nineteenth birthday, the King got him a nice car to go in the carport that held three. He never drove it, because he didn't have anywhere to drive it to. Anywhere he traveled, he had to fly.

He was kept busy now, cleaning up the missing pieces after the The Job. Xemnas had a lot of smaller supporters who were still loyal. He didn't care too much, because they kept him busy. And when he was busy, he couldn't think. More important, he couldn't sit alone in that big yellow house.

-

He left the islands when he was twenty, and didn't come back until he was twenty-three.

When he came back, the first thing he did was clean out his house. It wasn't like him anymore. He'd grown up a lot in his three years away. He hadn't had to "off" anyone lately. He'd come to terms with everything.

Cleaning out his closet, he found an old kite his mother had given him when he was fifteen. He inspected it for holes, before deciding to go to the park and try it out. Things went nicely until…

"Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry!"

And he could feel himself falling even harder than his stupid kite ever could.


End file.
